Jets Snag Another Defender

By

Chris Herring

April 26, 2012 11:31 p.m. ET

FLORHAM PARK, N.J.—Jets coach Rex Ryan walked into the team's press conference room late Thursday night, having just made the 16th pick in the NFL Draft. But time will tell whether the smile was warranted.

ENLARGE

The Jets made defensive end Quinton Coples their selection in the first round of Thursday's NFL Draft.
Reuters

The organization took Quinton Coples, a 6-foot-6, 285-pound pass-rushing defensive end out of North Carolina, addressing what most analysts considered the team's greatest offseason need in the process. The pick marked the second consecutive season the Jets used their top pick on a defensive lineman and the third straight year the defense-oriented Ryan had taken a player from that side of the ball with the first selection.

But while the Jets like Coples, even team officials themselves acknowledged that it'd be fair to question some things about his playing career to this point.

Analysts have been critical of Coples's work ethic, saying that he regressed from his stellar 2010 season. He landed 10 sacks that year but picked up just 7.5 when he moved to his defensive end in 2011. The team's top collegiate scout, Joey Clinkscales, said last week that Coples had a better junior season than he did senior year.

Ryan said "maybe [Coples] never quite met those" lofty expectations that he created as a junior, but said a position change, from interior defensive line to defensive end, had a part in that. The coach, pointing out that Coples had endured four different position coaches in college, said he envisioned Coples being a hand-in-the-dirt lineman, like Shaun Ellis or Trevor Pryce.

Ryan worked out Coples personally in North Carolina, actually acting as a blocker during drills at times. He went out of his way last week to promise Coples that the team would take him if he was available when the Jets' pick came up. "I'm happy he was a man of his word," Coples told reporters.

Despite the fact that they made the pick, general manager Mike Tannenbaum acknowledged that the club fielded a number of calls from teams who were looking to trade up for the 16th pick on what had already been a trade-happy evening during the first round. He did say, however, that Coples was the highest-rated pass rusher the Jets had on their board.

But the Jets could take their lumps in years to come if Coples becomes a bust, like 2008 first-rounder Vernon Gholston -- their last pass-rushing draft pick -- turned out to be. A number of teams, including the Chargers and rival Patriots, took first-round sack artists in South Carolina's Melvin Ingram and Syracuse's Chandler Jones, shortly after New York made its selection.

The Super Bowl-champion Giants closed the first round by taking Virginia Tech's David Wilson, a lightning-fast running back who broke a school record with 1,709 yards as a junior last season. The team had a void to fill at that spot once it released Brandon Jacobs, who officials determined would be too expensive to keep him along with Ahmad Bradshaw.

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